 Program number two, accessible sidewalks, design issues for pedestrians with ambulatory impairments. This runs seven minutes and 51 seconds with Kathy Johnson of the Access Board and Lisa Cadario, a consultant. Kathy Johnson was sort of analyst for the Access Board. Today Lisa Cadario and I will be showing you problems of accessibility that most of us were disposed of encountering not every day at once. Lisa will narrate the problem because she's writing, probably more adaptive than I am. I hope you learn some problems that we encounter and that it will help you do your job better. Kathy and I traveled along three typical blocks near a suburban transit station. You can find conditions like these anywhere. Narrow sidewalks right at the street edge. Steep running slopes with no landings or resting places. Cross slopes that affect your balance as you're going across a curb ramp. And walking surfaces that are rough, unstable or slippery when wet. You'll see as we show the film footage of our day's work how important surface conditions are to those of us who walk with crutches, walkers or canes. And it's not much different for pedestrians with gate impairments who don't use walking aids or for people with limited stamina or range of motion. And the thing is those of us who make the most demands of sidewalk and street crossings are often the people with the fewest transportation choices. We're more likely to be pedestrians and transit users than drivers. And you'll find us everywhere on any stretch of sidewalk crossing at any corner. We're not a special population found only in hospitals and nursing homes. We're part of the pedestrian cohort you're designing for. On this sidewalk there's room to avoid the damaged area, but that's not always true. Especially on older sidewalks where maintenance has been poor. Anything that can catch a dragging toe or foot is an accident waiting to happen. Watch Kathy's foot at this damaged brick sidewalk. And here I am where a tree has pushed up the adjacent sidewalk, which already has a tough slope to contend with. Anywhere there's metal, a manhole cover, a grating, these checkered plates will be slippery when wet and unbelievably treacherous when icy or hidden under snow. A crutch tip will just slide out from under you and you're gone. With this metro station. Here's another surface that's a problem when wet. They even put out warning signs on rainy days. Whenever there's a change in material underfoot, you have to anticipate a different reaction from the crutch or walker tip and be extra careful. So it's always good when these changes occur on a wide flat level surface like they do with this metro station. Anything with an opening large enough to affect the bearing of a crutch or cane tip will affect balance, stability, and therefore control. Gratings are a particular concern since they'll also be slippery when wet. Kathy can't avoid these. They're right in the only path of travel available here. Sometimes you don't want to use a curb ramp. You want to pass by it along the sidewalk. If there's a landing at the top of a curb ramp, you've got a flat surface to travel on. But if a curb ramp is led into a narrow sidewalk like this one, you have to go over its flared size to get across it. There's no way to avoid it, and that means there's not a place for all four legs of a walker to be touching the ground at the same time. Under conditions like these, walking with a walker may be more dangerous than going without it. A better solution in narrow sidewalks at the street edge is to ramp the sidewalk down to a level area and then back up again. If you give the level area a small cross slope, 2% is the usual standard, it will drain to the street. This is a much more manageable design. Here's another severe cross slope on a sidewalk, and while Kathy might ordinarily use her scooter for this trip, this is a situation where the scooter might be more dangerous. This route probably isn't even reversible by scooter without risking tipping over sideways. Although it's not much easier on foot. If you took a tumble here, it would be tough to recover. In reality, this is a good place to cross to the sidewalk on the other side of the street, assuming there is one, and that it will be more usable. When I'm using my wheelchair, or Kathy's under scooter, we'll travel faster than the standard pedestrian design speed of 4 feet per second. But on foot, it takes longer. I usually wait in the median for a second cycle to complete a crossing. Few drivers wait patiently after the light has changed, and there's rarely enough time allotted for a comfortable crossing of even two lanes at busy intersections. This descent takes a lot of concentration. As I come down the sidewalk, you can see clearly why an accessible route needs to be at least 36 inches wide. In fact, if you measured my stance from crutch tip to crutch tip here, I'll bet it would be more like 42 inches. Extra width is necessary when maneuvering around corners or in confined areas. At the bottom, where I'd like to see a level area that would make turning easier, the sidewalk narrows, and a short retaining wall adds another complication. I'm trying to keep well away from the drop-off at the curb on my other side. There's a greater risk of compromised control when you're going down the slope than when you're going up. I work up a fair amount of speed, and it takes real effort to slow down. If even a small irregularity catches my foot up, the top of me will be going faster than the bottom. Not a happy prospect. I'm about at my limit here. It wouldn't take much to throw off my balance or control. Here's another tight maneuver. Every place there's a level area I could use to turn on, there's something in the way. First a stairway, then a mailbox. Both of these could have been located somewhere else if somebody had understood the geometrics of being a pedestrian with a disability. Like it is for pedestrians who use wheelchairs, it's much more challenging for me to turn while going up or down. I feel much more confident about my footing if I can do my maneuvering on a relatively level surface. This pedestrian route was not designed with me in mind, but you already saw the other side of the street, and it's no better. This one's uphill with some bad cross slopes, especially at the curb ramps. I take a wide stance to make this climb with all this traffic at my elbow. Maintaining momentum, balance, and control are critically important. Both Kathy and I use powered mobility aids sometimes and in some places. It's nice to have an option when we're going as an accessible, but even when it is accessible, it's often less tedious to walk than to ride. I hope you found this video interesting and informative. Please remember that the Access Board provides free technical assistance Monday through Friday from 10 to 5 Eastern Standard Time. Thank you and have a good day. Here are numbers to call for technical assistance from the Access Board. The toll-free number for voice is 1-800-872-2253. The toll-free TTY number is 800-993-2822. The local number for voice is 202-272-0080. The local number for fax is 202-272-0081. And the local TTY number is 202-272-0082. Visit the Access Board website at www.access-board.gov. You can write the Access Board at the Access Board 1331 F Street Northwest Suite 1000, Washington, D.C. 2000-04-1111.